Gender of Nouns: Part I

Example from Camino del éxito

This lesson will help you to understand the role of gender. To reach a level where you apply these concepts automatically in your speech, you need to practice using them. That's where our conversation course comes in. Here's a short audio clip taken directly from our conversation course.

Lesson

A noun is a word used to denote a person, place, thing, or idea.

Person: John, girl, dentist
Place: garden, university, Venezuela
Thing: book, car, tomato
Idea: liberty, despair, intelligence

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In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine.

Masculine	Feminine
el chico boy	la chica girl
el jardín garden	la universidad university
el libro book	la revista magazine
el miedo fear	la libertad liberty

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The idea that nouns have gender seems perfectly natural when the noun stands for a living creature. This is because in English, living creatures often have different names, depending upon whether they are male or female.

Masculine	Feminine
man	woman
tiger	tigress
aviator	aviatrix

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The following Spanish nouns all denote living creatures.

el gato male cat	la gata female cat
el perro male dog	la perra female dog
el chico boy	la chica girl
el abuelo grandfather	la abuela grandmother

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How are all of these masculine nouns alike?

el gato
el perro
el chico
el abuelo

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

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How are all of these feminine nouns alike?

la gata
la perra
la chica
la abuela

Hint: look at both the beginning and the ending of each line.

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"El" and "la" both mean "the."

el chico (the boy)
la chica (the girl)

el perro (the male dog)
la gata (the female cat)

Note: These two words (el, la) are called "definite articles." You will learn more about them in a later lesson.

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What do you notice about the last letter of these nouns?

Masculine

gato
perro
chico
abuelo


Feminine

gata
perra
chica
abuela

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Nouns that end in -o are usually masculine. Nouns that end in -a are usually feminine.

Notice the word "usually!" There are exceptions to these two rules and you will soon be learning them.

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One cannot predict the gender of a noun that stands for a non-living thing. Try to predict whether the Spanish words for the following things are masculine or feminine:

Masculine or feminine?

book
house
money
window

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One cannot predict the gender of a noun, except in the case of living creatures. Do not try to analyze the nature of the object, looking for some inherent masculinity or femininity. It won't work!

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Take a guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "dress" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be feminine, since a dress is an article of clothing worn by females. Actually, the word for "dress" is a masculine word:

el vestido

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Take another guess. Do you think the Spanish word for "necktie" is masculine or feminine? You might expect it to be masculine, since a necktie is an article of clothing worn by males. Actually, the word for "necktie" is a feminine word:

la corbata

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When you learn a new noun, you should also learn its definite article (el, la). There are several reasons for this:

• Because you cannot predict the gender of most nouns.
  
  
• Because not every noun that ends in -o is masculine, and not every noun that ends in -a is feminine.
  
  
• Because many nouns end in letters other than o or a.
  
  
• Because the definite article (el, la) is your clue as to whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

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Why do you care whether a noun is masculine or feminine? Good question! As you shall see in upcoming lessons, Spanish places a great deal more emphasis on gender than does English.